COVID-19 Testing, Vaccine Perceptions, and Trust among Hispanics Residing in an Underserved Community.

The Borderplex region has been profoundly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Borderplex residents live in low socioeconomic (SES) neighborhoods and lack access to COVID-19 testing. The purpose of this study was two-fold: first, to implement a COVID-19 testing program in the Borderplex region to increase the number of residents tested for COVID-19, and second, to administer a community survey to identify trusted sources of COVID-19 information and factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine uptake.

Engineering the Structure and Rheological Properties of P407 Hydrogels via Reverse Poloxamer Addition.

Aqueous solutions of poloxamer 407 (P407), a commercially available and nontoxic ABA triblock polymer (PEO-PPO-PEO), undergo a solution-to-gel transition with increasing temperature and are promising candidates for injectable therapeutics. The gel transition temperature, modulus, and structure are all dictated by polymer concentration, preventing independent tuning of these properties. Here, we show that addition of BAB reverse poloxamers (RPs) to P407-based solutions dramatically alters the gelation temperature, modulus, and morphology.

Racial/ethnic and Gender Inequalities in Third Grade Children's Self-perceived STEM Competencies.

Studies have sought to understand the underrepresentation of women and racial/ethnic minority groups in STEM, but less attention has been paid to primary school students. Using data from a nationally-representative sample, this study identified factors influencing US third-grade children's self-perceived competencies in math and science, while controlling for their actual abilities. Results indicate that girls had degraded self-perceptions of their math competencies compared to boys, but similar self-rated science competencies.

Closed-loop recyclable plastics from poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate).

Ethyl cyanoacrylate is a highly reactive monomer that has been used nearly exclusively to make Super Glue and related fast-setting adhesives. Here, we describe transformation of this highly abundant, readily available monomer into a closed-loop recyclable plastic that could supplant currently used (and often unrecycled/unrecyclable) plastics, such as poly(styrene). We report polymerization conditions, plastic-processing methods, and plastic-recycling protocols for poly(ethyl cyanoacrylate) plastics that make the Super Glue monomer a viable starting material for a next generation of closed-loop recyclable plastics.

Oxygen impact and reactivity trials: A new perspective on emergency response precautions.

The objective of this research was to verify and qualify what has been traditionally taught as fact during first responder's hazardous materials training regarding response precautions to and the likely behaviors of liquid oxygen (LOx) during a release. Subject matter experts disagreed that these precautions were well-founded in precedent or science. Findings showed that impact pressure causes a reaction in LOx and asphalt under specific conditions.

Demonstration of doxorubicin's cardiotoxicity and screening using a 3D bioprinted spheroidal droplet-based system.

Doxorubicin (DOX) is a highly effective anthracycline chemotherapy agent effective in treating a broad range of life-threatening malignancies but it causes cardiotoxicity in many subjects. While the mechanism of its cardiotoxic effects remains elusive, DOX-related cardiotoxicity can lead to heart failure in patients. In this study, we investigated the effects of DOX-induced cardiotoxicity on human cardiomyocytes (CMs) using a three-dimensional (3D) bioprinted cardiac spheroidal droplet based-system in comparison with the traditional two-dimensional cell (2D) culture model.

Structure-Activity Relationship Insights for Organophosphonate Hydrolysis at Ti(IV) Active Sites in Metal-Organic Frameworks.

Organophosphorus nerve agents are among the most toxic chemicals known and remain threats to humans due to their continued use despite international bans. Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have emerged as a class of heterogeneous catalysts with tunable structures that are capable of rapidly detoxifying these chemicals via hydrolysis at Lewis acidic active sites on the metal nodes. To date, the majority of studies in this field have focused on zirconium-based MOFs (Zr-MOFs) that contain hexanuclear Zr(IV) clusters, despite the large toolbox of Lewis acidic transition metal ions that are available to construct MOFs with similar catalytic properties.

A Computational Framework for the Swelling Dynamics of Mucin-like Polyelectrolyte Gels.

Gastric mucus is a polyelectrolyte gel that serves as the primary defense of the stomach lining against acid and digestive enzymes. Mucus is released from granules in specialized cells where it is stored at very high concentration. Experiments show that such a dense mucus gel may swell explosively within a short time period, and that this is accompanied by a massive transport of monovalent cations from the extracellular environment into the densely packed mucus in exchange for divalent calcium that had crosslinked the negatively-charged mucus fibers.

Glycomimetic Peptides as Therapeutic Tools.

The entry of peptides into glycobiology has led to the development of a unique class of therapeutic tools. Although numerous and well-known peptides are active as endocrine regulatory factors that bind to specific receptors, and peptides have been used extensively as epitopes for vaccine production, the use of peptides that mimic sugars as ligands of lectin-type receptors has opened a unique approach to modulate activity of immune cells. Ground-breaking work that initiated the use of peptides as tools for therapy identified sugar mimetics by screening phage display libraries.

Dementia Care Competency Model for Higher Education: A Pilot Study.

A statewide landscape analysis was initiated to identify workforce development and educational needs concerning the support of persons with Alzheimer's Disease and Related Dementias (ADRD). Educational programs preparing healthcare professionals were targeted since people with ADRD, and their families/caregivers, often have frequent, ongoing contact with healthcare providers. A literature review and thematic analysis discovered a dearth of research and a lack of consistent competency identification for healthcare education.

HIT-2: Implementing machine learning algorithms to treat bound ions in biomolecules.

Electrostatic features are fundamental to protein functions and protein-protein interactions. Studying highly charged biomolecules is challenging given the heterogeneous distribution of the ionic cloud around such biomolecules. Here we report a new computational method, Hybridizing Ions Treatment-2 (HIT-2), which is used to model biomolecule-bound ions using the implicit solvation model.

Promoting engineering students' social responsibility and willingness to act on socioscientific issues.

Background: Despite increasing awareness of the importance of promoting the social responsibility of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) professionals, few intervention programs have been developed to enhance the social responsibility of college students or adults in the STEM fields. In this paper, we introduced a new instructional program, called ENACT (engage, navigate, anticipate, conduct, and take action) and examined whether the program increased the social responsibility among safety engineering students ( = 46) recruited from a university located in a southern metropolitan area of South Korea.

Results: In the ENACT program, the college students selected and explored socioscientific issues (SSIs) of their own interest then autonomously engaged in scientific and engineering group projects spanning a semester where they developed solutions to the SSIs and shared them with their communities.

A Comprehensive Review of mRNA Vaccines.

mRNA vaccines have been demonstrated as a powerful alternative to traditional conventional vaccines because of their high potency, safety and efficacy, capacity for rapid clinical development, and potential for rapid, low-cost manufacturing. These vaccines have progressed from being a mere curiosity to emerging as COVID-19 pandemic vaccine front-runners. The advancements in the field of nanotechnology for developing delivery vehicles for mRNA vaccines are highly significant.

Inhibition of ERK 1/2 pathway downregulates YAP1/TAZ signaling in human cardiomyocytes exposed to hyperglycemic conditions.

Hyperglycemia-mediated cardiac dysfunction is an acute initiator in the development of vascular complications, leading to cardiac fibrosis. To investigate the effects of hyperglycemia-mediated changes in cardiomyocytes, cells were cultured in-vitro under normoglycemic (5 mM or 25 mM D-glucose) and hyperglycemic (5 → 50 mM or 25 → 50 mM D-glucose) conditions, respectively. After 24-h of hyperglycemic exposure, cells were collected for RNA-sequencing (RNA-seq) studies to further investigate the differentially expressed genes (DEG) related to inflammation and fibrosis in samples cultured under hyperglycemic-in comparison with normoglycemic-conditions.

Development of an extrusion-based 3D-printing strategy for clustering of human neural progenitor cells.

3D bioprinting offers a simplified solution for the engineering of complex tissue parts for in-vitro drug discovery or, in-vivo implantation. However, significant amount of challenges exist in 3D bioprinting of neural tissues, as these are sensitive cell types to handle via extrusion bioprinting techniques. We assessed the feasibility of bioprinting human neural progenitor cells (NPCs) in 3D hydrogel lattices using a fibrinogen-alginate-chitosan bioink, previously optimized for neural-cell growth, and subsequently modified for structural support during extrusion printing, in this study.

Ultraconserved elements-based phylogenomic systematics of the snake superfamily Elapoidea, with the description of a new Afro-Asian family.

The highly diverse snake superfamily Elapoidea is considered to be a classic example of ancient, rapid radiation. Such radiations are challenging to fully resolve phylogenetically, with the highly diverse Elapoidea a case in point. Previous attempts at inferring a phylogeny of elapoids produced highly incongruent estimates of their evolutionary relationships, often with very low statistical support.

Electrodeposition of dopamine onto carbon fiber microelectrodes to enhance the detection of Cu via fast-scan cyclic voltammetry.

The etiology of neurodegenerative diseases is poorly understood; however, studies have shown that heavy metals, such as copper, play a critical role in neurotoxicity, thus, adversely affecting the development of these diseases. Because of the limitations associated with classical metal detection tools to obtain accurate speciation information of ultra-low concentrations of heavy metals in the brain, analysis is primarily performed in blood, urine, or postmortem tissues, limiting the translatability of acquired knowledge to living systems. Inadequate and less accurate data obtained with such techniques provide little or no information for developing efficient therapeutics that aid in slowing down the deterioration of brain cells.

PREVALENCE OF RANAVIRUS IN SPOTTED SALAMANDER (AMBYSTOMA MACULATUM) LARVAE FROM CREATED VERNAL POOLS IN WEST VIRGINIA, USA.

Ranavirosis is a disease of high concern for amphibians due to widespread documentation of its lethal and sublethal impacts and its high transmission potential across populations and species. We investigated whether spotted salamander (Ambystoma maculatum) ranavirus prevalence and viral load were associated with habitat characteristics, genetic diversity, corticosterone levels, and body size. In 2015 and 2016, we sampled 34 recently created vernal pools in the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia, USA.

Design, Synthesis and Biological Evaluation of and -like Double Warhead Quinolinones Bearing Dihydroxy Naphthalene Moiety as Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Inhibitors with Potential Apoptotic Antiproliferative Action.

Our investigation includes the synthesis of new naphthalene-bis-triazole-bis-quinolin-2(1H)-ones 4a−e and 7a−e via Cu-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloadditions of 4-azidoquinolin-2(1H)-ones 3a−e with 1,5-/or 1,8-bis(prop-2-yn-1-yloxy)naphthalene (2) or (6). All structures of the obtained products have been confirmed with different spectroscopic analyses. Additionally, a mild and versatile method based on copper-catalyzed [3 + 2] cycloaddition (Meldal−Sharpless reaction) was developed to tether quinolinones to O-atoms of 1,5- or 1,8-dinaphthols.

Polyurethane and cellulose acetate micro-nanofibers containing rosemary essential oil, and decorated with silver nanoparticles for wound healing application.

In this study, polyurethane (PU) and cellulose acetate (CA) electrospun fibers encapsulating rosemary essential oil (REO) and adsorbed silver (Ag) nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated. The biologically inspired materials were analyzed for physicochemical characteristics using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffractometer, Fourier transform infrared, thermal gravimetric analysis, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, water contact angle, and water uptake studies. Results confirmed the presence of CA and Ag NPs on the PU micro-nanofibers increased the hydrophilicity from 107.

The Mitochondrial Protein MitoNEET as a Probe for the Allostery of Glutamate Dehydrogenase.

The proteins glutamate dehydrogenase (GDH) and mitoNEET are both targets of drug development efforts to treat metabolic disorders, cancer, and neurodegenerative diseases. However, these two proteins differ starkly in the current knowledge about ligand binding sites. MitoNEET is a [2Fe-2S]-containing protein with no obvious binding site for small ligands observed in its crystal structures.

Into Inclusion: Increasing Trans-Inclusive Practices with Behavior Analysis.

Unlabelled: Promoting an inclusive culture can be critical to the progression of diverse groups. Practicing inclusive behavior is one important step toward fostering inclusion. Applied behavior analysis can contribute much to this topic given its use of practical methods to encourage socially significant behavior change (Baer et al.

Transversality Conditions for Geodesics on the Statistical Manifold of Multivariate Gaussian Distributions.

We consider the problem of finding the closest multivariate Gaussian distribution on a constraint surface of all Gaussian distributions to a given distribution. Previous research regarding geodesics on the multivariate Gaussian manifold has focused on finding closed-form, shortest-path distances between two fixed distributions on the manifold, often restricting the parameters to obtain the desired solution. We demonstrate how to employ the techniques of the calculus of variations with a variable endpoint to search for the closest distribution from a family of distributions generated via a constraint set on the parameter manifold.